The environment in the news friday, 09 July, 2010

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  BBC: Russian sub 'could stop oil leak'
  
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  LA Times (US): Gulf oil spill: Drilling moratorium rejected again
  
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  AP: La Nina developing, could mean more hurricanes
  
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  AFP: US, Indonesian scientists journey to bottom of sea
  
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  Telegraph (UK): Tiger population 'falls to lowest level since records began'
  
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  Reuters: New batfish species found under U.S. Gulf oil spill
  
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  Guardian (UK): Germany targets switch to 100% renewables for its electricity by 2050
  

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  RONA
  
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  ROWA
  

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  Environment News from the UN Daily News of July 8^th 2010
  
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  Environment News from the S.G.’s Spokesman Daily Press Briefing of July 9^th 2010 (None)
  

With the issues of community development and conservation close to his heart, Mr. Norton voiced hope that he can channel the attention he receives for his work in Hollywood towards raising awareness of the UN’s ideals and activities. “I think that [Goodwill] Ambassadors in many ways can play a role in highlighting the models of success that the UN is promoting around the world,” he told the UN News Centre.

Addressing reporters in New York, the new Goodwill Ambassador said environmental issues will “incontestably” be the “defining challenge of this era.”

"(People) don't necessarily link themselves as directly to a crisis like biodiversity loss, as much as they will to say a refugee crisis. But I think catastrophic events, such as what is happening in the Gulf with the oil spill, do highlight for people that there is an enormous ramification for human well-being to a loss of biodiversity like a fishery," said Norton.

The UN General Assembly is set to hold its first high-level session on biodiversity in September, gathering 192 heads of state. Norton said he hopes leaders will present "compelling examples" of solutions to biodiversity loss, in order for them to be translated into concrete government policies.

“I think that [Goodwill] Ambassadors in many ways can play a role in highlighting the models of success that the UN is promoting around the world,” he told the UN News Centre.

Mr. Norton’s family has long been involved in sustainable development issues, with his father being a conservation advocate and his maternal grandparents having founded an organization to help provide affordable housing in the United States.

For his part, the new Goodwill Ambassador is very active in garnering support for conservation efforts, serving as a board member of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust and taking part in launching an innovative social networking platform called Crowdrise to boost participation in charitable work.

Last year, he ran in the New York City Marathon, helping to raise more than $1 million for local communities in Kenya.

In his new role, Mr. Norton said he will work with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to spotlight the “crisis of biodiversity” and ensure world leaders take appropriate measures to protect the environment.

One of his top priorities as Goodwill Ambassador will be to increase “people’s focus on the fact that human well-being is intertwined fundamentally with biodiversity,” the actor, twice nominated for an Academy Award, said.

It is vital that “people realize that they are not separate from the web of life,” he added. “Our ability to thrive as a species and as a civilization totally depends on that web of life.”

At his designation ceremony, Mr. Norton told the Secretary-General that biodiversity is an issue that “transcends national boundaries,” with people “having lost sight” of the need for environmental protection.

Referring to one of Mr. Norton’s most famous movies, Mr. Ban voiced hope that the Goodwill Ambassador will help to move the world from “Fight Club to a peace club.”

His appointment comes as the UN marks 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, with heads of State set to discuss the issue at a high-level meeting at UN Headquarters in New York at the start of the General Assembly’s 65th annual General Debate in September.
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Australia. to (Australia): CITES Regulates Billions Worth Wildlife Trade
8^th July 2010
Global wildlife trade has increased significantly since 1975, when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was signed. But not a single one of some 34,000 species listed by the Convention has become extinct as a result of boost in trade.

The source of this good news is CITES secretariat in Geneva, which estimates international wildlife trade to be worth billions of dollars. It includes hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and medicines.

CITES Trade Database, which registers legal trade in wildlife, holds over 10 million records of trade, with an average of 850,000 permits to trade in a CITES-listed species issued annually by the Convention's 175 member States.

Levels of exploitation of some animal and plant species are high and the trade in them, together with other factors, such as habitat loss, is capable of heavily depleting their populations and even bringing some species close to extinction.

From medicine to musical instruments and from fashion and beauty products to delicacies, wildlife items in trade must be properly regulated to ensure the continued survival of animals and plants in the wild.

Many wildlife species in trade are not endangered, but the existence of an agreement to ensure the sustainability of the trade is important in order to safeguard these resources for the future.

"Growing pressures on biological resources make regulating global wildlife trade even more relevant today than it was in 1975 when countries brought this unprecedented global treaty into force," said CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon, as the Convention celebrated its 35th anniversary on July 1, 2010.

With the accession of Bahrain announced ´June 30, CITES will have 176 Parties, while it had only 10 Parties 35 years ago, including Switzerland, which hosts the Convention's Secretariat, and the United States where the text of the Convention was adopted.

"By being a pioneer in adopting trade measures to prevent over exploitation and relying on scientific advice for the authorization of wildlife trade, CITES has put the machinery in place to contribute to the improved management of the key natural assets of our planet", said Ambassador Betty E. King, Permanent Representative of the United States mission to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.

"Switzerland is very proud to host a biodiversity-related Convention that is able to deliver concrete conservation results. We hope that the international community will build on its successes for many more years to come to contribute to alleviating poverty and stopping the decline in global biodiversity", added Mr Thomas Jemmi, Deputy Director General of the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office, the CITES Management Authority of Switzerland.

"This treaty was visionary because it was able to put practical trade rules in place for the use of terrestrial and marine species, before the global boom created by the liberalization of trade and the acceleration of transactions via Internet. CITES is thus part of the transition to a resource efficient 21st century Green Economy", said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which administers the CITES Secretariat.

CITES-listed species that are traded in significant volumes include species as diverse as orchids, crocodiles and sea shells. More recently, CITES has been used to address the precarious situation of marine and timber species, such as the great white shark and mahogany.

The Web-based CITES Trade Data Dashboards, unveiled on the occasion of 35th anniversary, use the trade data from the annual reports of the Parties to provide an instant overview of the magnitude of wildlife trade per country and per species group, such as mammals, birds or fish. For instance, the Dashboard provides a way to see general trends, such as "trade volume over time"; "top 10 trading partners", "top 5 items" and "trade by source (for example. wild or captive breeding)".

"The International Year of Biodiversity offers an opportunity to both reflect upon the past successes and mobilize efforts to address current and future challenges. CITES has a proven track record in managing wildlife trade internationally. Its ongoing relevance and ability to adapt to changing circumstances are essential to the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife," concluded Scanlon.

BACKGROUND

CITES is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Widespread information nowadays about the endangered status of many prominent species, such as the tiger and elephants, might make the need for such a Convention seem obvious. But at the time when the ideas for CITES were first formed, in the 1960s, international discussion of the regulation of wildlife trade for conservation purposes was something relatively new.

With hindsight, the need for CITES is clear. CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union). The text of the Convention was finally agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington on March 3,1973, and on July 1, 1975 the Convention entered in force.

It is gathering facts and figures to underscore what 'Mother Earth' is worth to its inhabitants, particularly us -- the homo sapiens. 'The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)', hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and a myriad of other reports and initiatives are under way to provide a glimpse of the value of the Earth's natural assets and their role in development.

UNEP's new report -- 'Dead planet, living planet: Biodiversity and ecosystem restoration for sustainable development' -- says that ecosystems are estimated to deliver essential services worth between $21 trillion and up to $72 trillion a year, comparable to World Gross National Income in 2008 of $58 trillion.

Wetlands, half of which have been drained over the past century often for agriculture, provide annual services of near $7 trillion.

Forested wetlands treat more wastewater per unit of energy and have up to 22 fold higher cost-benefit ratios than traditional sand filtration in treatment plants.

Coastal wetlands in the United States, which among other services provide storm protection, have been valued at $23 billion annually.

GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY OUTLOOK

Another report, the third Global Biodiversity Outlook, was presented at the UN headquarters in New York in May this year. Explaining the main thrust of the study, a senior UN development official warned that, without swift action and renewed political will, current "alarming" biodiversity declines would continue, and some life-giving ocean and rainforest ecosystems would spiral towards collapse, threatening sustainable development and human well-being.

"The projections are dire," Delfin Ganapin, Global Manager of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme, said on May 10 at a press conference on the results of the GBO-3, which was also launched in a number of other cities around the world, including Alexandria, Bonn, Brasilia, Chamonix, London, Manama, Montreal, Nairobi, Panama and Tokyo.

Ganapin informed that the Outlook, based on more than 110 national reports submitted by governments to the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and compiled in close cooperation with the UN Environment Programme, is advising humankind to halt a "massive" biodiversity loss with consequences that would be much worse than previously thought.

NEW GOODWILL AMBASSADOR FOR BIODIVERSITY

In yet another attempt to lure the inhabitants of Planet Earth to the rendezvous, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on July 8 appointed acclaimed actor and conservation activist Edward Norton as United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity. Norton said the issues of community development and conservation were close to his heart, and he hoped to channel the attention he receives for his work in Hollywood towards raising awareness of the UN's ideals and activities.

"I think that (Goodwill) Ambassadors in many ways can play a role in highlighting the models of success that the UN is promoting around the world," he said.

We have it from the UN that Norton's family has long been involved in sustainable development issues: his father is a conservation advocate and his maternal grandparents founded an organization to help provide affordable housing in the United States.

For his part, the new Goodwill Ambassador is very active in garnering support for conservation efforts, serving as a board member of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust and taking part in launching an innovative social networking platform called Crowdrise to boost participation in charitable work.

Last year, Norton ran in the New York City Marathon, helping to raise more than $1 million for local communities in Kenya. In his new role, Norton has vowed to work with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to put a spotlight on the "crisis of biodiversity" and ensure that world leaders take appropriate measures to protect the environment.

One of his top priorities as Goodwill Ambassador will be to increase "people's focus on the fact that human well-being is intertwined fundamentally with biodiversity". It is vital that "people realize that they are not separate from the web of life", he added. "Our ability to thrive as a species and as a civilization totally depends on that web of life."

Norton's appointment comes as the heads of government and State are set to discuss the issue (of biodiversity) at a high-level meeting at UN Headquarters in New York at the start of the General Assembly’s 65th annual General Debate in September.

UNDER-REPORTED

However, those involved in the daily business of driving home the significance of Planet Earth for the very survival of humankind are rather sceptical that we will be there in time for the rendezvous.

United Nations' top climate change official, Yvo der Boer, sounded far from optimistic in his farewell address in Bonn before leaving his job beginning of this month (July). "One major aspect of the climate change story that is perhaps under-reported is that of the green growth opportunities," he said.

Many, perhaps all, countries fear in one way or another that climate change action will constrain their economic growth. For policy makers in the industrialised world, the prime concern is whether jobs and a stable society will still be there in the future. For policy makers in the developing world, the primary concerns are economic growth and poverty alleviation.

However in 2009, recalled de Boer, the International Energy Agency found that the economic crisis has created a unique window of opportunity to shift the world’s energy sector onto a 450 ppm CO2 equivalent scenario, which gives us a 50 percent chance of keeping the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.

Many investments in the energy sector have been postponed as a result of the crisis. In 2008 and 2009, this also hit investments in renewable energies. But to a larger extent, it has affected investments in unsustainable technologies, which would have locked emission intensive technologies into energy sectors for the next 20 or 30 years to come.

He added: "As economic growth picks up again, it is critical to direct new investments into low emissions infrastructure."

This is indeed a chance the world cannot afford to miss. Nations can now seize the opportunity of greening economic growth through an effective UN climate change regime which can help mobilize significant amounts of capital towards green technology.

They can contribute to preserving soil's biodiversity that, as Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of UN Convention to Combat Desertification pointed out recently, is worth trillions of dollars.